Notre Dame adds two Fellows and three Trustees

Published: May 14, 2013

Author: Dennis Brown

Two members of the University of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees were elected Fellows of the University, three individuals were elected to the Board, and three Board members were elected to emeritus status May 3.

Rev. José E. Ahumada F., C.S.C., and John J. Brennan were elected Fellows, filling the vacancies left by Rev. E. William Beauchamp, C.S.C., and Patrick F. McCartan, both of whom reached retirement age and were elected emeritus members of the Board.

Father Ahumada is the rector of Saint George’s College, a 2,600-student Congregation of Holy Cross primary and secondary school in Santiago, Chile, and the president of a consortium of more than 70 private schools on the east side of Santiago. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Notre Dame and graduate degrees from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif., and the Catholic University of Chile. He was ordained a priest in 1983.

Brennan is chairman emeritus of Vanguard, one of the world’s largest investment companies. He joined Vanguard in 1982, was elected president in 1989, served as chief executive officer from 1996 to 2008, and was chairman of the board from 1998 to 2009. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a master of business administration degree from the Harvard Business School. His three children are Notre Dame graduates.

Father Beauchamp is the president of the University of Portland and McCartan is senior partner of the international law firm Jones Day and immediate past chair of the Board. Also elected to emeritus status was Kenneth E. Stinson, chairman emeritus of the Omaha, Neb., construction firm Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc., who will receive an honorary degree from Notre Dame later this month.

The 12 Fellows – six lay men and women and six priests of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Notre Dame’s founding religious community – are the University’s ultimate governing body. They elect the Trustees, adopt and amend the bylaws and are specifically charged with maintaining Notre Dame’s Catholic character.

The three new Board members are Karen McCartan DeSantis, Thomas Maheras and Cindy Parseghian.

DeSantis is a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C., office of the law firm Kirkland & Ellis. She specializes in complex, commercial litigation. A graduate of Princeton University, she earned her law degree from Notre Dame, where she was editor in chief of the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy. She is a visiting faculty member in Notre Dame Law School’s Trial Advocacy Program and has served on the Law School Advisory Council and the advisory board for the University’s Alliance for Catholic Education program.

Maheras is the founder and managing partner of Tegean Capital Management, an investment management firm based in New York City. He previously was chairman and co-chief executive officer of Citi Markets and Banking, the investment banking division of Citigroup, and before that worked for Salomon Brothers. He earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from Notre Dame and has been a member of the advisory council for the University’s Mendoza College of Business since 2006.

Parseghian is president and co-founder, with her husband, Michael, of the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation. Named in honor of Michael’s father, the legendary Notre Dame football coach, the foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for Niemann-Pick Type C Disease, a disorder that took the lives of three of the Parseghians’ four children. Parseghian earned her bachelor’s degree in accountancy from Notre Dame and a master’s degree from Northwestern University. She has served on the Notre Dame College of Science Advisory Council.

Also joining the Board is James Zavertnik, a 1979 graduate from Miami, the president-elect of the Notre Dame Alumni Association.

Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees is chaired by Richard C. Notebaert and currently is composed of 47 members.